re your 200sx front struts- i have access to a set, but from a 4 cylinder car. Are they serviceable, or is it a must to get them from a v6 model? Hard to believe Nissan would have stocked a whole different strut assembly for the v6

Yes, the V6 struts are unique. The V6 S12 200SX got 5-lug hubs and different bolt spacing for the brake calipers (100mm). The 100mm bolt spacing for the brake calipers allows you to bolt on Z32 4-piston brake calipers, or many of the other later Nissan 4-piston setups (Skyline, etc.)

I did a test fit with the Z31 4-lug hubs mounted to the S12 200SX front struts on the Datsport front suspension. With the 38mm wheel, everything looks like it is going to clear just fine-- when the car is on the ground, the outside edge of the tire should just clear the edge of the fender...

Sadly, no real fun front dish on the front wheels, but I need the positive offset to clear the Brembo calipers-- they should just clear everything and still fit under the 16" wheel:

Still need to build a rotor hat and figure out a rotor, but that is not too difficult...

Hi Michael,
Just a few Qs.
I see you have the Z31 4 stud hubs.
Do they have provision for bolting the rotor to the rear face.?
what diameter and rotor thicknes is required for the sentra calipers?
Offset of rims?
may be able to assist you.

The mounting tabs on the strut for the calipers have been machined down just over 3/8" to bring the caliper in, and I will rebuild the back half of the caliper mount on the strut to get it back to it's 3/4" thickness. This way we were able to cheat the caliper in to clear the wheels, otherwise they would be waaaaaaay too wide. I will draw up the caliper mount and have a new backing plate laser cut, which will be TIG welded to the strut caliper mounting ears to get everything back to normal again... Of course I will update the thread of photos of that procedure...

I have Brembo aluminum 4-pots under a 15X7 wheel, so you should be in good shape. Look here for pictures of how I took a shortcut and used two new Z31 rotors to make a mounting hat without all the machining. Then Coleman racing made the rotor to my specs. for less than the price of some new OEM rotors.

I have had the intercooler and radiator for years for this project, but they have never been fully mounted in the car. The last time I worked on this was 8-9 years ago, and the police came by to say that we were making too much noise (massaging the core support) and one of the neighbors had called in to complain...

Anyway, Eric was over today and in-between other projects helped me finalize the brackets and get the intercooler in the car instead of laying in the trunk! Looks much better here!

The valance is a NOS piece that was used for the test fit, had to make sure that everything was square and happy...

Eric and I got a lot more work on both his and my 510 this weekend (and threw in a 200 mile drive in the roadsters as well!)

With the intercooler and radiator mounted, it was now time to get the intake pluming sorted out. Eric having sorted all the intake pluming on his 510 project really helped move things along as we were able to leverage from his recent experience. I have a huge box of mandrel aluminum bends, so it was just a matter of finding what bends worked best, trimming to suit on the band saw, and welding, welding, welding...

Starting from the air filter, a generic Apexi air filter mount was turned down in the lathe and the stock MAF was modified for a press fit, no welding, nice and clean (obviously not cleaned up yet!)

Then the air snakes down to the turbo via two mandrel bends (the upper water neck is done too!):

Then into the intercooler:

Through the intercooler and up to the intake manifold:

While I was working on Eric's S15 wiring harness, he took my downpipe to the bandsaw and went to town... about an hour later, the downpipe was done and mocked up in the car!

We still need to build the recirculation system from the blow off valve back to the intake, but it sure felt great to get this much progress done!

Major Kudos to Eric for his hard work this weekend, though I think he was having more fun than I was-- TIG'ing aluminum is more fun than soldering wires!

Nice build! Love the clean fab work. I'm running the same calipers under 16" wheels. I've got about 1/8" of clearance to the wheel using early 350z rotors 296 × 24.0 (11.65" × 0.945"). It might not hurt to shop for rotors under 12" so things will fit under those wheels. Btw STI/350z brembos are a perfect match for the rears.

Just a query - did you consider running the intake through the inner fender and placing the air filter just behind the valence panel ahead of the front wheel? A lot of late model cars are doing this -you get clean air that hasn't been pre-heated but the rad/intercooler, and you take advantage of the slight positive pressure in the wheel well. You'd need to run a baffle of sorts so that crap (and water) doesn't get thrown on the filter by the wheel. But this makes the bends from the T/C a larger radius and less restrictive..... just a thought that I've been kicking around for the LZ EFI Turbo Bronze project (somewhere down the road as the collection of parts sit there!!) I guess I need to measure what size of filter you could install with a full sweep of the wheel lock to lock.

Yes, I considered building an air box like that-- my last turbocharged 510 had that arrangement-- here are a couple build photos as it was being put together.

A couple quotes from the mid-90s when this was being built:

This shot shows the opening for the fresh air box. The box itself measures approximately 7x7x8" and has a large K&N air filter installed in it. The air filter is removable by removing the top of the box inside the engine compartment. When the front bumper is installed just the lower 3/4" is visible. The box is totally sealed except for the front opening (and a few holes to allow any water to escape.) Once moving, the trapped air has nowhere to go but into the intake. When the engine is running at WOT the amount of airflow into this box is amazing. If you hold your hand near the edge you can feel it being pulled into the air box. I held a piece of paper near the edge while the car was running at it sucked it into the box. We have decided to build a screen to prevent this from becoming a leaf trap!

The backside of the fresh air box. This is installed in the inner fender and has just enough room to allow for tire clearance. The box is flush with bottom of the valance. The shock reservoir has been relocated here to keep it away from the heat of the turbo charger.

With the bumper on, it all disappeared nicely...

We may revisit the intake and build something like that again. Sadly, the Bluebird has been put away for awhile now while I finish my wife's 1500 Fairlady project, but I will be back to work on this soon enough...